The News Rundown

"Friendship should never be controversial": Israeli ambassador criticizes Nenshi for photo apology

“I’m so sorry” Naheed Nenshi says for taking a photo with Iddo Moed, Israel’s ambassador to Canada.
Nenshi issued the apology at the behest of the NDP base after taking the photo at the Calgary Stampede.
Nenshi said, “the Alberta NDP strongly believes in human rights and international law. He cited Israel’s “actions in Gaza” and Israel’s “sustained campaign” in Lebanon.
He then brought up what we are seeing “here at home” with “increases in anger, hatred, anti-Palestinian racism, and anti-Semitism.”
This story about Nenshi and the ambassador got almost zero attention in the media this week, instead the media was talking about how Nenshi was going to move his seat from Edmonton to Calgary.
The reality as we have detailed many times through 2024 and 2025 on Western Context is that anti-semitism in Canada is on the increase and conveniently the perpetrators are masked and further masked by the media. The media also rarely talks about sources of breeding anti-semitism in Canada.
Ambassador Moed was in Alberta for technology delegation that featured Israeli companies in cyber security and artificial intelligence and as political types do, he was at Stampede.
In a phone interview with Postmedia properties Moed said, “Friendship should never be controversial.” Moed was diplomatic and did not reveal what him and Nenshi spoke about at the Stampede. He did add when he posted on X, “it’s unacceptable for hate to creep and fester into a space built on hospitality, undermining the respect and empathy that should define it.”
Nenshi initially defended his conversation with Moed. When confronted by a supporter onlookers started recording. Nenshi said of his conversation, “He comes to Stampede, and I’m not supposed to say hello, am I supposed to tell him to eff off at a public event?” Nenshi responded. When the person affirmed what was intended as a rhetorical question, Nenshi replied, “Yeah, that’s not how it works.”
Senior Rabbi Menachem Matusof, executive director of Chabad Lubavitch of Alberta, told Postmedia he was appalled to learn of Nenshi’s statement and that Nenshi has given into amisemites.
Jewish federations in Calgary and Edmonton both condemned the apology for speaking to an ambassador.
Some online discourse was supportive of Nenshi and said he didn’t go far enough to “call a genocide a genocide.”
This action is largely indicative of the modern NDP’s stance on Israel. Blanket support for a Palestinian state, Israel is a genocidal actor, and the blurring lines of anti-semitism in Canada.
Calgary Sun columnist Rick Bell wrote an article expanding on interactions from a Palestinian March in 2024. He offered a straight question and answer interview but there was one condition: denounce Hamas terrorists. No one agreed and Bell was called a “Jew loving fascist.”
Following the October 7 2023 terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel the views of Canadian Palestinian march supporters was seldom put on display.
The reality though is that while there is a significant number of Canadians that support both Israel and a Palestinian state, perhaps a plurality, there is a large number of Canadians that only support the existence of a Palestinian state and a portion of those, hopefully small, are horrendously anti-semetic.
Former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney commented on Nenshi’s apology calling it “utterly pathetic” and that “the left has become so infantilized, and so enthralled by antisemitism, that it is now deemed “hurtful” to be in the presence of the Ambassador of the world’s only Jewish country.”
Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner said that the “statement will help strengthen Canada's pluralism because it clearly acknowledges the disproportionate amount of hate Jews are experiencing, and the crimes committed by the Iranian regime and their proxies against Israel. It certainly doesn't tacitly normalize Jew hate.”
This is the angle of a simple action and retraction by Naheed Nenshi that deserves media coverage and study. If Nenshi felt like he had to do this after a mayoral run where he worked well with Jewish community centres it speaks volumes about the Alberta NDP.
If this is the case for the Alberta NDP we also need to ask that question about the federal NDP.
The two Jewish federations previously mentioned said, “It’s about whether elected leaders are prepared to engage respectfully. We reject any narrative that suggests engagement with Israeli officials means otherwise.”
And that’s the story.
Supplementals:

While this week has been quiet in BC, a story slipped under the radar that has implications for how the province's resource industries have been treated under the BC NDP.
Forests Minister Ravi Parmar started the week on a positive note, announcing that the province would be making more wood available to custom cutters and producers in the specialty products sector. On Monday, Parmar said: “British Columbia’s path forward for forestry can’t just be providing dimensional lumber to Americans. We’re supplying fibre to the businesses who are ready to create world-class wood products.”
That was Monday. Next day came a reminder of the one-stop forward, two-steps back aspect of his ministerial portfolio.
The abrupt closure on Tuesday of Canfor’s Northwood pulp mill in Prince George this week was the latest in a long line of preventable tragedies in the forest sector that have cost thousands of people their jobs, say workers and industry leaders. And without a major course correction from the provincial government, it’s going to get worse.
There were 17 pulp and paper mills in B.C. five years ago, just before Premier David Eby took over leadership of the NDP government in 2023. Now 11 remain, with Northwood’s closure, with likely one or 2 closing every year until none remain.
More than 300 people will lose their jobs at Northwood, due to what Canfor says is “a structural shift in global pulp markets” combined with “persistent challenges accessing fibre.”
The Vancouver-based company said in a news release announcing the wind-down of the mill by the end of this year: “These factors have resulted in a prolonged period of unsustainable financial losses for Canfor Pulp. With no foreseeable improvement in the outlook, Canfor has made the difficult decision to close its Northwood facility.”
At the site in Prince George, many workers simply walked off the job after hearing the news, said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor’s western director. “It’s devastating. We’re left with a lot of questions and a lot of finger-pointing, as usual. We've been calling that forestry is in crisis for years. We’ve been talking about government action, both provincially and federally, that has been occurring, but too slow, and too focused on the medium and long term and not addressing the crisis that everyone knew.”
Prince George Mayor Simon Yu also called the news "devastating" and said the city has worked to diversify its economy and will survive, but that the shutdown will have lasting impacts.
“[Pulp mills] are some of the major reason we as a community survived during the '60s, '70s, '80s, they were the backbone of the local economy. It’s like a dear family member that is going down."
More than 20 sawmills and pulp and paper mills have closed in B.C. during the last two years, creating a knock-on effect. Fewer trees cut mean fewer in-the-woods jobs, fewer truck loggers, fewer suppliers and ultimately fewer sawmills, which then starve pulp mills of the wood waste needed to operate. Fewer pulp mills then mean fewer customers for sawmills, as part of a kind of interlocked death spiral for the industry.
The NDP government has long blamed US softwood lumber tariffs, global market dynamics and forest companies more interested in investing elsewhere than B.C. Canfor, for example, announced a $68 million purchase of a wood facility in Calgary last month. Canfor reported a $73 million loss in its first quarter of 2026.
The forestry sector counters with complaints about the NDP’s ever-changing provincial policies, fewer trees due to old growth protections, delays caused by First Nations reconciliation requirements, high stumpage fees, bureaucracy, and onerous permitting requirements.
Parmar has said structural reforms are coming to forest permitting. But the government has struggled to get First Nations to sign off on forest landscape planning tables that were supposed to identify large areas of agreement for logging. In the meantime, the NDP government also needs to take a pause on signing massive Indigenous land use and conservation agreements that lock up Crown land from the potential of logging, according to forestry advocates.
Opposition BC Conservative forestry critic Ward Stamer said the government has moved too slowly to reduce delays and costs for the sector, resulting in thousands of job losses. What was an industry that brought in $2 billion in revenue just a few years ago now contributes less than $500 million to treasury, he said.
“Without certainty of supply and the fact that we’ve got the most expensive cost for fibre in North America, it makes it very hard for us to compete not only on a world market but even on a domestic market. We’ve basically costed our way right out of the market with everything from access to fibre, the cost of the fibre, all the policies and regulations that the NDP’s piled on top of us, and it just makes it uneconomical to move forward in a lot of these instances.”
Stamer, who represents the Kamloops-North Thompson riding, also said it also hurts the widening rural-urban divide in the province. “It’s unfortunate that people in other regions of the province, say the Lower Mainland, that really don’t truly appreciate what we’re talking about, because everyone’s affected by this not just the revenue that comes into the provincial coffers but all the other subsidiary jobs that are related to this industry. Everyone’s touched by forestry in this province… and it’s been driven right into the ground.”
A more recent, but no less cautionary, report was delivered in June by the federal government’s task force on transformation of the Canadian forest sector.
It detailed two decades of “declining production, capital flight, prolonged mill closures, and weakened investor and workforce confidence,” in the sector.
While acknowledging the toll exacted by softwood duties, wildfires, pine beetles, and industry short-sightedness, the 60-page report nevertheless issued an unequivocal verdict: “The most significant barriers to competitiveness are homegrown. For too long Canadians have blamed distant others for matters for which we must be held to account. That must end if the trajectory of Canada’s forest sector is to change.”
The top recommendation: “Stable, long-term access to competitive fibre is the precondition to everything else in this report. Without it, capital will not flow, regardless of incentives and workforce confidence will continue to erode.”
Access to fibre is the key. The task force on Forestry said it in June, the BC Pulp and Paper coalition said it four years ago, others said it before and since. Still, the mill closures and job losses continue, while the investment dollars go elsewhere. The NDP clearly do not care about the livelihoods of the province outside of the Lower Mainland and Island, and this has led to a reduction in provincial revenue that could really help the government balance the budget right about now.
Supplementals:

Midwestern Republicans blame Canada, level threats for drifting wildfire smoke

Michigan congressman John James who is running for state governor issued an ultimatum to Canada: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year,' wrote a Michigan congressman running for governor.
James, who has been endorsed by US President Donald Trump, had the President’s backing with the US administration now threatening to impose tariffs on Canada over wildfire smoke.
The push to sanction Canada over the smoke was echoed by Ohio senator Bernie Moreno who plans to introduce a Bill in the Senate next week to sanction both our country and any responsible Canadian government officials.
The reality though is not as simple as anyone would like it to be.
Canadian media does admit that there are roughly 190 fires in northern Ontario contributing to the smoke problem, though fires in Minnesota are also contributing to the problem.
Canadian media highlighted that there are more than 1,100 fires burning in the US with 400 in the midwest alone.
They seem to want this fact and the absurdity of the Trump administration to waive any responsibility that Canada may have.
Looking at fires previously in Alberta such as Slave Lake, Fort McMurray, and most recently Jasper, the dominant discussion in the province following each of those was forest management.
While Canada’s boreal forest is large and removing dry fuel is not feasible across the entire land, especially land not surrounding urban areas or in national parks.
Forest management is a valid point but far from the only point of concern.
The media in this country has also used the massive uptick in fires and hot summer weather as a reason to turn the channel to climate change yet again.
Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist and dean at The University of Michigan said the solution was simple: “just stop burning fossil fuels."
The reality of the situation is that the climate wanes. At points in the past much of Canada was under sea and the northern arctic exhibited a rain forest like climate.
The reality though between Canada and the US is that we share resources when it comes to managing forest fires. They help us and we help them. Both in terms of personnel and heavy equipment.
This was made a story by the media on both sides of the border. The difference though is that to the chagrin of many in the United States, more than 10 years after first appearing on the national scene, Donald Trump sets the media narrative of the day.
Trade discussions have been ongoing back and forth between Canada, the US, and Mexico. Just recently Mexican foreign secretary Roberto Velasco said that Mexico isn’t looking to cut a bilateral deal with the US if it means abandoning the trilateral USMCA agreement with Canada.
The Gordie Howe bridge has posed problems in this country for the government and as such any distraction and diversion from that, specifically one that raises the spectre of US annexation, 51st state, or more tariffs is welcome to the media.
The reality is that we should be talking about the failures in this country before turning the channel again to fear about the United States.
Donald Trump has performed a similar maneuver in the United States. On Thursday he gave a prime time address that most news stations failed to air. It was about foreign interference in American elections - sound familiar?
Except in the address he did not say that he won the 2020 election and declassified documents show a foreign interference scheme in the US that is superior to what we witnessed in Canada.
Because the media coverage of his speech was negative or non-existent, Donald Trump turned the channel again, this time to Canada.
The people of Canada and the people of the United States are not being served by their media.
In the end we move closer and closer to failing to get a full renewal of CUSMA or USMCA as the Americans call it. And in the US a shared ignorance amongst the media and a majority of the population is willfully turning a blind eye to foreign election interference.
This was all caused by the literal smoke in the air.
Supplementals:

Firing Line

PM Carney insists Gordie Howe Bridge tolls will not be shared ‘until all debt is repaid’

Prime Minister Mark Carney is doubling down on Canada’s deal with the United States to open the delayed Gordie Howe International Bridge and insists toll revenue will not be shared “until all the debt is repaid.”
Carney has been under fire this past week for bending to the Trump administration's demands of a share of the toll fees to open the bridge, which will connect Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. The Canadian government announced the bridge will open on July 27, after an agreement was struck following weeks of delays and public criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The new crossing is expected to significantly ease congestion at the nearby Ambassador Bridge and streamline cross-border trade. According to a senior government source on Friday, Canada will get 50 per cent of the bridge’s net profits in the first 15 years, with the other 50 per cent going into an economic development fund that will be reinvested in the U.S. side of the region. The source also says that the U.S. will need to agree if Canada wants to increase bridge tolls by more than 10 per cent or lower them below compared regional averages.
Those changes are a significant shift in the agreement first signed in 2012 as part of the Canada-Michigan Crossing Agreement. In that deal, Canada agreed to front the full construction costs, which grew to $6.4 billion, and later collect 100 per cent of toll profits until it recouped its investment. The agreement estimated that recoupment would take at least 50 years after which Canada and Michigan would equally split toll revenues.
The deal has sparked some criticism for being another concession to the Trump administration. Amid trade tensions with the U.S. over the last 18 months, Canada has rescinded the Digital Services Tax and ordered the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to review its decision to triple streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content — two policies that U.S. officials have publicly criticized.
Mainstream reports have largely repeated the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) talking points that Canada "is not splitting the tolls". However, a closer look reveals a massive shifting of goalposts from the original 2012 border crossing agreement.
Carney's new deal splits net operational profits 50/50 with an American regional fund for the first 15 years, which is something he refuted to reporters this week. “It’s not splitting the tolls of the bridge. It is an agreement for 15 years to split net revenues. Splitting of tolls, any sharing of the toll revenue won’t happen until all of the debt is repaid. We will split net revenues over the course of the first 15 years, and those net revenues are after operational costs. The word ‘net’ does a lot of work in this. We are sharing after Canada is paid back.”
When pressed on how this impacts Canadian taxpayers, Carney dismissively admitted that net revenues during the first few years would likely be "modest" or even "negative" due to steep operational costs like toll booth staffing, maintenance, and snow removal. Independent financial analysts point out that Canada has effectively taken on 100% of the financial risk and long-term debt exposure, while capping its own short-term upside to appease the White House.
Since the deal was announced late last week, the federal government has been facing pressure to unveil more official details about the deal. So far, no written agreement has been made public.
In a letter addressed to Carney on Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is accusing the prime minister of “contradictory statements about what you’ve given away. So, what’s the deal? It’s been a week; it’s time for you to release the deal so Canadians can see for themselves what you negotiated away to the Americans.”
Earlier this year, both sides were trying to quietly negotiate an opening date after Trump complained in February that Canada was not treating the U.S. fairly on trade. Trump went on a lengthy tirade on social media that included the construction of the bridge as part of his grievance.
The New York Times had also previously reported that Matthew Moroun, who is the billionaire owner of the nearby Ambassador Bridge and a Trump donor, met with United States Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick hours before Trump’s social media post in February. But in an interview with Global News last week, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra denied that donations from the Moroun family were behind the delayed opening of the bridge.
This narrative mismatch suggests that the Liberal government is either misrepresenting the terms to Canadians or was thoroughly out-negotiated by the Trump administration.
Carney built his entire political entry around the "Elbows Up" movement. He explicitly framed himself as a tough, technocratic economic streetfighter who alone possessed the financial acumen to handle Donald Trump's aggressive "America First" trade policies.
The pinnacle of this branding was a widely broadcast campaign ad featuring Canadian icon Mike Myers. Both wore red Team Canada hockey jerseys, aggressively throwing their elbows out to symbolize a nation that would no longer back down. The jerseys featured a "Never 51" badge, directly mocking Trump's threats to absorb or economically colonize Canada. Carney campaigned on the promise that dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs would be a given.
When Trump threatened to block the opening of the bridge, Carney did not throw his elbows up in the corner to defend Canadian interests. Instead, his elbows went down remarkably fast. As political commentator Andrew MacDougall noted in ⁠The Toronto Star, Canada essentially paid Trump a multibillion-dollar ransom just to open our own infrastructure. "Trump came into our shop, threatened to smash it up, and didn't leave until he got his money".
Carney was not elected to be a polite, transactional diplomat who manages Canadian decline; he was explicitly elected to stand up to Trump's bullying. As conservative critics like Peter MacKay have publicly stated on social media, the Gordie Howe deal proves that Carney's "elbows up" campaign was entirely empty talk, leaving Canada in a far more vulnerable position as major free trade renegotiations loom.
By allowing Trump to rewrite a 14-year-old legally binding contract through social media threats, Carney has signaled to Washington that Canada's economic sovereignty can be bought or intimidated.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

“It’s unfortunate that people in other regions of the province, say the Lower Mainland, that really don’t truly appreciate what we’re talking about, because everyone’s affected by this not just the revenue that comes into the provincial coffers but all the other subsidiary jobs that are related to this industry. Everyone’s touched by forestry in this province… and it’s been driven right into the ground.” - Ward Stamer, BC MLA for Kamloops-North Thompson on the NDP’s failure to stand up for BC Forestry.

Word of the Week

Intimidation - the act of frightening, threatening, or coercing someone, usually to force them into doing what you want.

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Show Data

Episode Title: Capitulating Carney
Teaser: Nenshi apologizes for taking a photo with the Israeli ambassador, another pulp mill closes in BC, and some American politicians blame Canada for wildfire smoke. Also, Carney capitulates on the Gordie Howe International Bridge opening.
Production Code: WC-477-2026-07-18
Recorded Date: July 18, 2026
Release Date: July 19, 2026
Duration: 1:00:41
Edit Notes: None

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX